If you’re lucky, you probably have a full set of tools for making perfect pasta, including a pasta maker, special boards, cutters and your grandma’s dough recipes. But here we are searching for pasta masterclasses. In this post, I’ll cover the basics of what I learned in pasta classes and what I’ve been making at home since then.
By the way, if you like pasta, I highly recommend taking a good pasta class – it will change your life. Today, I’ll share with you all the tricks I use, but if you’re afraid of making pasta from scratch or think it’s a complicated procedure for professionals – you might prefer to make it once under chef's guidance.
Overall, the process is simple, relaxing (unless you need to make pasta in large quantities), and the pasta turns out much better than the pasta you can buy in the store, even if it’s fresh pasta.
Okay, let’s get started!
What is pasta dough?
It's just 2 parts flour and 1 part liquid, like this:
100g flour + 50g liquid.
One way to classify is by liquid: water vs. eggs/yolks, another by flour: semolina pasta vs. 00 flour. What do you need?
After some experimentation, I settled on two combinations that work perfectly:
Semolina + water for handmade pasta
00 flour + eggs/yolks for machine-rolled pasta. The smoothest pasta will come out with yolks, but with eggs it's cheaper and you don't have to worry about how to use the egg whites.
When making pasta with eggs or yolks, first weigh them (without the shells) and then add twice as much flour.
What is the difference between flours?
00 is the finest wheat flour. I find that this flour rolls and cuts easily on a pasta machine. This means that I make tagliatelle and ravioli sheets with it. When combined with egg yolks, it makes the softest pasta.
Semolina is made from a harder type of wheat called durum. It also does not grind as finely as 00 flour. But this flour is ideal for small handmade pastas that need to hold their shape when cooked in a thick sauce. This dough is less elastic, so I find it difficult to roll out on a machine. But this pasta has a very pleasant chewiness, and I can make the best cacio e pepe with this flour.
What is the serving size?
It really depends on your appetite and purpose: if it is a main dish, you may need more, if it is a side dish, you may need less.
You can start with 80 grams of flour + 40 grams of water. With the egg, it will depend on the weight of the egg.
What equipment do you need?
Pasta made from semolina and water is perfectly formed by hand. You can have an gnocchetti board for forming gnocchetti or a scraper for making casarecci, but you can replace them with a fork and knife.
For rolled pasta, you will need a pasta machine. I have an Imperia that we used in the workshop, but it is small for home use. I find it satisfactory in terms of performance. But you can choose any you like, or even electric rolling machines that come with your food processor.
Extruders - I do not have one, so I will not talk about it. You may need a different type of dough not described in this post to get the best results.
Recipe
Mix 100g of flour with 50g of liquid in a bowl.
Whisk them together with a fork or your hands until the dough comes together.
Help combine everything together with your hands. It should be crumbly at first, try to form a ball. If pressing doesn’t help, add a drop of water. We don’t want our dough to be too wet.
Take the dough out of the bowl and start kneading it: pull it away from you, then gather it back into a ball
When should you stop? You need to knead it well so that the whites develop enough to form a paste. I recommend starting with 5-10 minutes. The dough should be able to form an even ball with a smooth surface that bounces a little when you poke it.
Form the final ball and put it aside to rest under the mixing bowl for 30 minutes.
Dough shaping
Hand-shaped gnocchetti - from semolina/water dough
Gnocchetti are a very effective little pasta shape: they have a groove on the inside and small grooves on the outside to hold as much of the thick sauce as possible. They are also quite thin because they are essentially a deformed sheet of dough, although they start out as a piece of dough and look like a piece of dough. The finished pasta is a little chewy, as it should be.
Once the dough is rolled out, divide it into several pieces. When working with one piece, leave the unused part of the dough under the bowl.
Form a strip of dough with a diameter of 7-8 mm.
Cut it into small pieces of 10-12 mm in length.
Prepare the place where you will lay out the finished pasta by sprinkling the surface with flour.
Use a gnocchetti board or a fork to shape the pasta:
Place a piece of dough on the top of the board.
Press with your thumb and push down.
They will roll out on the board, taking the shape of gnocchetti.
Don't be afraid to learn and redo the first few pieces. Your pressure should not be too strong - it will simply smear the dough on the board. But it should not be too weak either, otherwise you will not give the desired shape, and your pasta will remain a lump of dough.
Turn the finished product out onto a floured surface. Sprinkle a handful of shaped pasta with a little more flour.
Try not to stack one item on top of another, as they may stick together.
Hand-shaped casarecce - from semolina/water dough
These long, small noodles are also designed for thick sauce. They also have a groove on the inside and may not have a groove on the outside (unless you also use a ribbed board). The dough layer will be even thinner than gnocchetti, but may have more curls. I've tried making this pasta at home a couple of times and found that it's just much slower to form the same amount of dough.
Start with the same steps as before.
Take a piece of dough and stretch it with a scraper.
It should curl inward.
Place the finished product on a floured surface. Sprinkle the mound of finished pasta with a little more flour.
Basically, that's it. But it sounds much easier than it is.
Farfalle using pasta making machine - from 00-egg dough
If you haven't heard of the previous two types of pasta, then you definitely know farfalle - thin sheets of dough in the shape of butterflies. And for this type, we need to roll out the dough using a pasta machine. And a cutter, if you want beautiful edges.
Take a small piece of dough.
Form a rectangle with your hands. Try to make it thin.
Place it in the widest gap between the rollers and pull it through. Repeat 2-3 times.
Narrow the gap by 1 level. Roll the dough through it twice.
Repeat the previous step until you reach the desired thickness of the dough layer. It can be the thinnest or 1-2 levels from the thinnest.
Use flour so that the dough layer is not sticky.
Cut even strips about 3 cm wide from the layer.
Cut each strip into pieces of 1.5-2 cm.
Take a piece with three fingers, as in the image below, and press it to the center.
Place the finished product on a floured surface. Sprinkle a handful of the finished paste with a little flour. Let it dry a little so that it retains its shape better.
What's next - the pasta is ready! How to cook it? This is a request for the next post. Stay tuned!
